Organic Marketing Manager Defends CWB Jobs
(March 7, 2004 - OSPG) In response to an OSPG press release, the CWB organic marketing
manager, Donna Youngdahl, attempted to defend why organic farmers should
be forced into the CWB monopoly pools while at the same time the CWB
themselves market outside the pools, insisting that there is a “big
difference”.
“Not surprisingly, this non-marketing, marketing manager left out an
important difference.... CWB jobs.” states Bill Rees, an organic farmer
at Stockholm, Saskatchewan, “When they market outside the pools
themselves, its good for CWB jobs, but its not if they let organic farmers
out of the pool.”
The CWB’s special fixed price and basis contracts, in which the CWB
markets outside of the pool accounts for individual farmers, involve much
top-end policy analysis and decision making, buying, selling, hedging and
various additional administration costs that all maintain CWB jobs.
“Youngdahl’s own position, which was especially created for organic
grain, and at organic farmers expense, would no longer be needed if
organic farmers were freed. Without the forced buy-backs, there
would be no job of levying the special administration fees the CWB charges
only organic farmers for selling into the pool. As well, the
considerable propaganda assignment of defending CWB organic policy
would no longer be needed.” adds Rees.
“There’s another real difference Youngdahl never mentioned.”
says Wawota, Saskatchewan organic farmer, John Husband, “Organic farmers
sell into markets that the CWB can’t even access, whereas the CWB
directly competes with the pool marketing with every bushel they sell of
non-pooled grain.”
“Youngdahl’s argument that freeing organic grain gravely threatens the
pools is bogus. Organic grain represents less than 1% of Board
marketing and even if, on the off-chance that some of this grain was sold
into conventional markets, at worst, it is only a farmer doing exactly the
same thing the Board says is harmless when they do it.”
“The present CWB policy is severely hurting the Prairie organic
industry, but CWB bureaucrats concocting some other self-serving
scheme is also unacceptable. Western organic farmers simply need to
be treated the same as Eastern organic farmers.” concludes
Husband. |
